


A Tense Family Dinner

by RoseThornhill



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Post-Episode: s11e10 My Struggle IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14538807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseThornhill/pseuds/RoseThornhill
Summary: Mulder and Scully visit Bill and his family to tell them about their joyous news. But Bill still hates Mulder...





	A Tense Family Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> I suck with titles; feel free to suggest a new one! As always, constructive comments (positive or negative) are always greatly appreciated!

  
"You doing ok, Mulder?" Scully glanced at him in the passenger seat. He looked queasy.  
"Yeah..."   
"You sure you want to do this?"  
"Yes." His answer was stronger, more convincing.

He didn't have time to change his mind, as Scully pulled up to the welcoming two-story home. Scully had barely turned off the ignition when Jacob came running out of the house and gave his favorite aunt a big hug. “Hey Jacob! I missed you! Where is Matthew?”

“He’s finishing up a paper for class. I already finished my homework,” he tells her proudly.

“Well, then you are my favorite nephew! Do you remember my partner, Mulder?”

Jacob, 14, still hadn’t gotten into that dopey asshole teen phase. He greeted Mulder with a handshake and a “Mr.” before his name. “Good to see you again, Jacob.”

Bill met them at the door. He greeted Scully with a warm hug; he greeted Mulder with a polite nod of the head. "He didn't try to punch me," Mulder whispers into Scully's ear. "I think he has warmed up to me!"

"Night isn't over yet," Scully reminds him, then goes to say hi to Tara, who is busy in the kitchen.

Bill directs Jacob to take his aunt's bags to his room, where she will be staying while he bunks with Matthew. Mulder stands awkwardly in the hall, not sure where he belongs. "Fox, you can put your bags in here," Bill says, pointing to the living room. Bill has relegated him to the couch.

"Um, sure, okay. Can I help with anything?"

"No, the ladies have it covered," Bill says dismissively. Still the same, charming Bill, Mulder thought to himself. Jacob came downstairs and invited Mulder to play video games with him. Mulder was relieved to have something to do - and someone besides Bill to talk to.

Scully came in and noticed Mulder's bag was still on the floor. "Mulder. Go put your bag away. Then you can come back and play video games."

"Oh, um... Bill said I was sleeping out here."

"What?"

"It's okay Scully. I don't want to... get into it with him. This is great. I spent most of my life sleeping on a couch."

"No, this is ridiculous." She marched off to confront her brother. Mulder couldn't hear what was being said, but there was no mistaking Scully's aggravated tone.

"So you and Aunt Dana are... together?" Jacob asked delicately. Mulder bit back a smile. What a polite young man.

"Um, yeah. Yeah we are," Mulder answered. This smile he couldn't bite back. He still couldn't believe he and Scully were together, either.

***

The family gathers around the table for dinner. Mulder is caught off guard by the pre-meal prayer, but he sits quietly while Bill leads the prayer. After the amen, dishes are passed around. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and fresh dinner rolls - all homemade. Certainly a step-up from the Chinese takeout he and Scully usually default to.

The family is quiet while everyone digs into Tara's delicious dinner. Bill breaks the silence. "So, Dana, to what do we owe the honor of your presence?" Mulder nearly chokes on his potatoes. He didn't expect this to come up as the first point of conversation. Luckily Scully was ready for this. She patted Mulder's thigh reassuringly beneath the table.

"Well, uh, I have some news," she said, her nervous excitement carefully disguised behind her measured Scully facade.

"You are retiring!" Bill exclaimed triumphantly. "Dana, this is great. I have never liked you as an FBI agent, but mom always warned me against trying to talk you out of it. Of course, I didn't think you would last this long with this 'partner' of yours--"

Scully cuts him off (though not fast enough for Mulder's comfort). "No, Bill, I'm not retiring."

"Tell me they gave you a better assignment at least."

"No, I--"

"Geez, Dana. Look, I promised mom I wouldn't bother you about this, but she's not with us anymore, and I am now the head of the family--"

"I'm pregnant!" Scully exclaimed, desperate to shut Bill up. It worked; everyone shut up. Even Mulder was a little bit shocked at her outburst.

"But... I thought... you couldn't..." Bill stammered.

"I guess you could call it a miracle," Scully answered weakly, hoping the religious edge would soften him a bit. It didn't.

"Dana... um... aren't you....” He was fighting for the appropriate way to ask this. “Not young enough...?"

Scully sighed. She was suddenly very tired and she didn't feel like giving her older brother a biology lesson right now. Besides, there was another fight brewing.

"Who's the father? Oh wait," Bill's eyes grew stormy and turned his focus to Mulder. Mulder blushed and felt his throat tighten. He had a flashback to his first date at age 15, when Jenna Miller's father had greeted him at the door with a shotgun. "You knocked up my little sister??" He stood menacingly. Mulder jumped out of his chair defensively, hand already going instinctively to his gun. Tara hustled Jacob and Matthew into the kitchen, and Scully jumped between her brother and her baby daddy.

"Bill! Stop it!"

"Dana, how could you let this happen?"

"Let this happen? Did you ever think that maybe I want a child?"

"Yeah, but with him? How many times have you almost died because of what you do with him?"

"Sex with Mulder is not dangerous to my health!" Bill flushed a bit, unused to hearing his little sister talk about sex. Mulder sat down slowly. Scully clearly didn't need his help. If he thought he could get away with it, he would go back to playing video games with Jacob.

"What about William?" Bill asked. The topic of William was still a sensitive one to both Scully and Mulder.

"What about him?" Scully countered.

"He knocked you up, then left you alone with a baby. And clearly you couldn't handle that because--"

"Because what?" Scully dared him. Mulder was genuinely scared. He had only heard her voice like that once or twice before... and it never ended well.

Scully, a foot shorter than her big brother, seemed to grow to stand eye-to-eye with him. Bill knew he had crossed a line, but he had never backed down before. He steeled his eyes and said: "Because otherwise you wouldn't have had to give him up for adoption."

Slap! Scully's hand across Bill's face made Mulder cringe, and brought Tara out from the kitchen to identify the noise - but only for a moment. Scully stared down Bill for a moment, then marched off to her room. Bill didn't dare look at Mulder as he nursed his reddening face.

Mulder went to check on Scully. He found her pacing in her room, angry tears dotting her face. "Hey... you okay?"

"I don't know why I thought Bill would be happy about this."

"Because a new baby is something to celebrate?"

Scully shot him a look that Mulder recognized. It was a rhetorical question. "He has always disapproved of everything in my life. He is even worse than my father. At least my father had parental pride in me. But Bill... he believes women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen."

Mulder grabbed her by the hand and gently pulled her to the bed. "You have to calm down, Scully. High blood pressure isn't good for the baby." She relented and sat beside him. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair, which always calmed her down. "I just... we don't have much family left. It's just Bill and Charlie. And I never know where Charlie is." A beat. "I just want our baby to have a family."

"I know. I know." Mulder rocks her gently. He sees Bill standing awkwardly in the doorway and nudges Scully. She looks up and Mulder quietly excuses himself to let the siblings talk.

"I'm sorry Dana. I know you had your reasons for giving up William," Bill said haltingly. She had never bothered to tell him the real reason she gave up William, and now didn't seem like the time to go into it. "And I know Mulder had his reasons for not being there. I always forget what a strong woman you are, and that you don't need a man there to help you raise a child. Of course I want to be a part of your baby's life. And," he said, nervously inching in for a joke, "if Mulder leaves again, you and your baby can always move in here." She smiled weakly and he gave her a hug. "I love you Dana, and I'm going to love your baby. Let's go downstairs. Tara has dessert ready."

Scully hung back, letting Bill go downstairs and giving her a moment with Mulder. “Thanks for not shooting Bill.”

“Hey, it’s rude to shoot your host before dessert is served.” A beat. Then: “I’m not leaving you, and I am not leaving this baby.”

“I know.”

“Last time—“  
“Mulder. I know.” She stared deeply into his eyes. He didn’t need to explain himself. That was a long time ago; she had buried that hurt already. They didn’t need to exchange any words.

“You ready to go downstairs?” Scully nodded and wiped a stray tear from her face. He gave her a kiss on the forehead, then they went downstairs, hand in hand.

Everyone had returned to the table, and Tara was slicing up a lemon-blueberry bundt cake. Mulder waited, unsure if there was another prayer before the dessert course. There wasn’t.

“So,” Bill said. “When are you two getting married?” Mulder froze mid-chew.

Scully’s eyes clouded over. “Mulder, can I see your gun?”

 

 


End file.
